|
|
 About |
 |
 |
 |
Central Asia the core region of the Asian continent and stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north. It is also sometimes referred to as Middle Asia and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent which also included areas of Afghanistan, Northern Iran, Kashmir region, northern Pakistan, Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet in western China and southern Siberia in Russia.
From the 17th century, up to the very end of the 20th century, most of Central Asia has been part of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, both being Slavic majority countries. As of 2011, these areas are still home to about 7 million Russians and 500 thousand Ukrainians.
Central Asia is a region of great importance because of its overabundance of oil and natural gas. Currently, the Middle East has the largest reserves of oil and natural gas, but Central Asia has the potential of becoming the second runner-up as the world’s most important energy source with its 13 billion tons of gas.
Of the nations of the Caspian Sea basin, Kazakhstan has the largest oil reserves, with a total ranging from 9-40 billion barrels. It also has the largest natural gas reserves in the region, ranging from about 65-100 trillion cubic feet. With such a huge amount of oil, even after the projected domestic needs of 35 Bcm by 2020, there will be plenty leftover for exportation. Turkmenistan, on the other hand, has focused its strength on its 2.9 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. Because Turkmenistan has only 4 million people with an economy that is barely developed aside from oil and cotton, there is limited domestic consumption of its gas and thus a plethora of gas to export.
Download
File: Central Asia in Historical and Geo Political Perspective.docx
Filesize: 17 KB
|
|
|
Home
Browse Resources
Toolkit/Publication: